Kahoot! is an online gaming platform that was created for classroom use based on research that was done by a Science and Technology professor and graduate students in London. Co-founders Jamie Brooker and Johan Brand started with the idea that teachers are using outdated curriculum, and not engaging students in the classroom when they started working on the mobile application. They wanted students to be able to learn in a way that got them excited and involved in the learning process. Since many students are already "gaming" on their mobile devices, they decided to make an educational game that can be used both by teachers and students in and out of the classroom. Moreover, Kahoot! is extremely easy to set up and even easier to play.
To get started with Kahoot!, teachers should create an account by going to getkahoot.com. Once an account has been created teachers can easily create surveys and quizzes. The first thing to do is create a title for your quiz or survey. Once the title is created, a new screen will pop up where the quiz or survey questions will by typed in one at a time. You will type in 2 to 4 answers for each question, placing a check by the answer that is correct. Images can be added to the questions to make the Kahoot more engaging for students. If you do not add your own images, the game will add them for you. You can also add a YouTube video to your quiz or survey. Simply copy the link from youtube and add to your Kahoot and tell it the time to start and stop. Kahoots can have up to 40 questions. When you are done adding a question you click "add question" to add additional questions. You can give students 5 to 100 seconds to answer the questions. Once you have entered all of the questions that you want in your quiz/survey, you will come to a review screen where you can check for typos, and even rearrange the order of your questions. Next, you will need to adjust the settings for your Kahoot!, you will be asked to either make your Kahoot! private or public, and adjust the difficulty level to easy, intermediate or advanced. You can add hashtags to make your kahoot! easy to find!. The final step is to give your quiz or survey a cover image or video. You can upload a photo/video from your computer by following the directions in the Kahoot! screen. Then, you are ready to use Kahoot! in your classroom.
Kahoot! works with any device that can connect to the internet. In the classroom, teachers must have an account in order to create their own Kahoots, but students are not required to create an account, they will only need the access code that the teacher gives them. In this way, Kahoot! has many functions. Students will simply go to kahoot.it. and type in the access code that is given to them by the teacher to play.